


Stealing Flowers and Haunted Houses

by Nicolasious_the_Conquerer



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Adoption, Angst, F/M, Family, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-02
Updated: 2015-10-02
Packaged: 2018-04-24 11:09:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4917295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nicolasious_the_Conquerer/pseuds/Nicolasious_the_Conquerer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren Jaeger never believed the stories that people tell him about the house at the end of the street. As far as he's concerned, it was just a way to keep him from doing whatever he wanted. His mother deserved the best for her grave and if that means stealing flowers from the garden then so be it! He wasn't afraid! That is until that horse face dared him to go INSIDE!</p><p>Baded on Awful AU tumblr post #169</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stealing Flowers and Haunted Houses

**Author's Note:**

> None of the views expressed in this story about the foster care system are personally mine. They are simply based on news stories I have seen and a few foster kids I have met personally.
> 
> I'm placing them at about seventh grade here so I can put some more stories in this AU time line. Also remember, my fan fiction my rules!

The stone house at the end of the street was known for a few things. It was agreed by all the residents of the city that the house was very beautiful. The outside was made of gorgeous brown stones of many different shades. The front yard was well kept by a lawn service always being clean.

Anyone to peak into the backyard would also know that it had the prettiest back garden. There were all sorts of flowers and plants, some of which no one has ever seen before. It somehow maintained its order even though no body has been seen to live at the house.

Finally, the house was known to be haunted. Many years ago and elderly man had lived in that house with his daughter and two sons. He seemed to be a loving man until one day his daughter had vanished. Shortly after the daughter’s disappearance the man died, leaving his house to his sons, who left abandoned.

It seemed like the house was just empty, until one day they heard screaming of a young woman. The entire neighborhood was in shock by this. Of all the things that could have happened, the ghost of the daughter screams was not on their list of expectations. People started to theorize that the man had tortured and killed the girl.

To Eren Jaeger, these where just stupid stories to keep him from doing what he wants to do. At least once a week he would crawl though a hole in the fence and get some flowers for his mother’s grave, once he even got some to convince his foster mother to get him a ferret. He didn’t get the ferret but he was grounded from leaving the house for a week.

Of course, this isn’t what stopped Eren from giving up on his explorations into the yard. His mother deserved the best flowers to be placed on her grave, even if it means vising a haunted house to get them. What did stop him was a much more chilling story.

One day Eren was taking his weekly visit into the yard. He picked several flowers before he heard it.

“Hey you brat! What the fuck are you doing in my yard!”

A chill ran down his spin hearing the voice of the old man who died there. Without even turning to look, Eren booked it to the hole in the fence and never went near the house again.  
That is until tonight when a sleep over at Connie’s house took a turn for the worse. Every year, on the weekend before school starts, the boys would have a party to send off the summer. Everything was innocent enough, but the Jean decided to dare Eren to stay in the house until sunrise. This is what lead to Eren, Jean, Connie, and Armin standing across the street from it.

“Eren please don’t do this,” begged Armin. “You don’t have to go into that house!”

“No, but if he doesn’t than he’s a huge chicken,” Jean chimed in from behind.

“Shut up you stupid horse face!”

“Guys shut up! We might get caught and we all know how mad my mom can get!” Connie reminded them.

He was right of course. Connie’s mother did not take well to this behavior, last time ending in an entire grade of children being grounded. That was certainly a birthday party to remember.  
“Just get your butt in there Jaeger!”

Eren took a huge breath, and started his was across the street, into the yard, and onto the front porch. His hope that there wouldn’t be anyway in was shattered when the very first window he tried opened easily. Gulping, he climbed into the empty house.

He walked around the dark house as best he could in the dark, eventually finding some sort of closet. He decided his best bet is to stay there until that dumb horse face was satisfied enough for Eren to win the stupid dare. He used up so much energy being afraid that he, somehow, fell asleep.

“What the fuck are you doing in my pantry you little brat!”

Eren jolted up from his sleep, looking around to see that he was, in fact, in someone’s pantry. He remembered last night before remembering the voice that just yelled at him. It was the voice he heard in the garden, the voice of the ghost of old man Ackerman. Eren got up as fast as his sleepy mind let him and ran. He didn’t get very far before he felt someone grab his collar, holding him back.

This wasn’t a ghost, the house wasn’t haunted, and it sure as hell wasn’t empty. Eren had stolen someone’s flowers, he broke into their house, and he slept in their food pantry. Jean is so dead when he gets out of here! If he even gets out of this alive.

“Levi WHAT is going on in here,” asked a brunette woman with long hair pulled into a ponytail. 

Eren looked at the woman and noticed that she was very much pregnant. Eren was in way more trouble than he had originally thought. He’d been stealing from a pregnant woman this entire time. Jean was dead, even if Eren didn’t make it out alive. He’d find a way.

“Hanji, it seems that the shitty brat stealing flowers from my mothers garden has decided to take a little nap in our pantry!”

“Levi put the poor kid down, he’s scared out of his wits!”

“Good!”

She gave him a death glare. He sighed before, reluctantly, let him go before getting right in front of Eren.

He saw that this man had bored grey eyes, short black hair in an undercut, and looked pissed beyond belief. He couldn’t blame him in all honesty.

“I’m getting my keys and you are going to take me to this girl you’ve been taking our flowers for,” he said turning to grab his car keys. “She better be cute”

“I’ll go get my shoes on”

“Hanji no, you’re pregnant!”

“Hanji yes, I’m pregnant!” she said sternly. “Besides I have to make sure our twins aren’t born with a child murderer as a father!”

Finding out they were having two babies just made Eren feel all the worse. He was in way deeper than he thought. He should of stopped when they told him to. Now he has to try to explain why he was stealing another mother’s flowers for his own mother’s grave.

Aside from Eren giving directions, the ride was silent. Eren was so upset with himself. Upset that he was caught, upset that it turned out that someone DID actually live there, but mostly at that horse face.

“It’s right through this gate on the right,” he said.

The stopped the car in front of the Trost Cemetery. The silence following the announcement was deafening. Eren just wanted this whole thing to end.

“Sweetie, this is a grave yard,” Hanji finally said. “The flowers where for someone who passed away?”

“My mom.”

More silence in the car, no one said a word as Levi started the drive back. God did he hate silence. It reminded him of when he was told his mother died after the wreck.

When they got to the house and climbed out of the car, Hanji turned her attention to Eren. It was almost comical seeing her try to get to eye level with her condition.

“In all this chaos I don’t think we ever got your name”

“It’s Eren.”

“Well Eren, if you ever need flowers just come down and ASK ok? I’m sure Levi’s mom wouldn’t mind but no sneaking in. Deal?”

She extended her hand to Eren with a huge smile on her face. He had to admit, it was a little creepy.

Nonetheless, Eren took her hand shaking it in agreement. She then turned to Levi.

“You’re an ass!”

“An ass that you married.”

Eren did his best not to laugh at the two before the fun ended with the appearance of his foster mother.

“Eren there you are! How many times have I told you to never go near that house! That place has been empty for years not to mention haunted!”

“Actually we’ve been living here for about five years and haven’t had any problems,” Levi said. “Well, up until now anyway.”

The caretaker blushed in embarrassment. Thing’s got awkward for a few minutes before introductions, and explanations, where made.

It turns out that they were given the house as a wedding gift since the other kids couldn’t decide on who should take the house, they had trouble selling it, and his cousin didn’t want a house that size. It was also discovered that the two were rarely home due to a decent commute to a private school for their jobs. Levi knew several languages and taught French while Hanji taught a biology class more or less dedicated to dissecting. 

Eren was shooed away before he could learn were the yelling came from. He had a feeling he didn’t want to know anyway.

\---------------

Nine months after the craziness, Eren had started to become really attached to the Ackerman family. Hanji was a little insane but well meaning. Levi acted like he didn’t care he was surprisingly fatherly.

The two were amazing parental figures and the birth of the identical twin girls, Sophia and Mia, only made it all the more apparent. The two adored their children with all of their hearts. If Eren didn’t know any better, he’d think they like him as much.

But unfortunately, he knew better. After the accent that took his mother, and his right leg, they ran into money problems. His father had to go over seas to work in hospitals over there but disappeared. Nobody knew what happened to him, not even what country he was in.

He was given to his foster mother shortly after that. Through the year and a half that he’s been there she has made it perfectly clear that he was there to keep him out of the system. She had told him that many places where abusive and only in it for the money. Saying that they would get more from him with his disability. At least she was honest with him.

Sadly, he was recently told that he was going to a different home. He had no idea about who these people were or where they lived. He hoped that it wasn’t one of those abusive foster parents that used the kids for money that he heard about. He knew not all of them were that way but the stories are scary, even to him. He’d be lying if he didn’t say he was mad about the situation.

At least they’re letting him finish out the school year. As much as he didn’t want to he did have to say goodbye to his friends. He was going to miss them all. Maybe not Jean, but he was going to miss Armin, and Connie, and Sasha, and all the others.

The first day of summer vacation came way too fast, this was the day his new family was picking him up. He was more than a little nervous, mostly because he had heard that they already have kids. He’s heard some terrible things happen to foster kids in homes where there are already kids involved.

“Eren they’re here.”

He took a deep breath before stepping outside to meet his new family. He went out to see two people holding two little girls. He recognized them right away. His eyes went wide in shock.

“Hey there Brat, are you going to get in the car so we can go home or are you just going to stand there looking like you need to shit?”

It was Levi and Hanji, the latter giving the former a playful smack on the arm shaking her head. She mumbled something about how the girls first word is going to be some swear if he keeps talking like that.

“What?”

“You’re living with us from now on!” Hanji said excitedly. “Did they tell you? We adopted you!”

No one had said a single word to him. It had put him in a stunned silence all the way back to the Ackerman house. His house. Not even a year ago and he was stealing from them, now they were his new legal parents? He has sisters? Guess he really owed Jean an apology for giving him that black eye.

Later, sometime after diner, Eren realized that he still had one very important question for them.

“Can I have a ferret?”

Levi glared him straight in the eye, eyebrow twitching.

“We just adopted you as our own son and the first thing to come out of your shitty ass mouth is to ask for a filthy disgusting noodle covered in fur?”

“So that’s a no?”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys liked it! I had too much fun writing for the characters.


End file.
